It was dark, and every tiny sound was magnified ten times by the echo in the cave. Zen was afraid. He felt his fear escalated when he heard Johan’s voice echo.
The madman knew where they were. How? Zen had no idea. Nobody was in the area when he first found the cave, with Damian following behind him. The area tracker showed nothing. How did Johan know there were people in here?“Come out, come out, wherever you are! I smell more than rats in this place. Don’t worry. I won’t bite. I’ll just drink your blood from the bloody pieces of your flesh. HAHAHAHAH!!”Trembling but holding his breath and doing his best to erase his existence the way Liu Feng taught him, Zen shifted his body in front of Damian, pushing the cyborg closer to the wall.While Damian appreciated the gesture of bravery and his attempt to uphold Zen’s protection service, he knew it wouldn’t work. Johan “Terrorist” Bin Hashim gained his repuTwenty minutes flew by very quickly. Without any threats for the rest of the game, Zen settled into a more relaxed mode, opting to do silly things like build sandcastles and jump the artificial waves at the beach while his two most powerful party members slogged.Was this really ok? Damian could understand if Sasha joined him to amuse the child-like gamer. However, when the Amazonian joined in with the sand sculpting contest they hosted and dragged him into helping her to build a sand totem, Damian had to question their sanity.Why were they having a beach party when people were frantically fighting for their lives in this event? Didn’t they just escape a narrowly close death experience?“What’s wrong?” Oritha frowned. “Your hands have stopped moving. I still need five more compact sand bricks.”Staring at her, the cyborg studied her. There wasn’t a lot of hate anymore for some reason.“Didn’t you hate me
Everything was up to Damian now. Zen tried to squash all his feelings. Whatever the cyborg chose, he respected it. Zen did not want to regret freeing Damian even if they could not be in the same party.Akiko and Liu Feng did not remain idle either. They distributed the blank map parts between themselves, so each person had sixty-one map parts. Hopefully, it was enough to secure two rooms in the luxury dorm. Moving rooms now would be a massive pain, and they couldn’t afford to lose their guild gathering place.Damian looked at the system notification. He already knew what he had to do. There should be cameras watching him now and many famiglias paying close attention to him. There was no better time to do this.“I would like to decline. Sorry, everyone. I can’t come home right now. If anything, I want to take this opportunity to make an important announcement.”For once, there was more attention on Damian Gorski than on Zen. The gamer held
After the event concluded, most students chose to return to sleep. Damian decided to pack up his things as he was in the last place of the latest event. He had to move rooms when the evacuation notice came. The cyborg had no idea how he would fit all his machinery in a room any smaller than this.Earning himself a Class C room wasn’t easy. After stacking the bed vertically towards a wall, he only managed to get everything he needed to fit in it. The deluxe room had a little more space than a standard room which couldn’t fit Damian’s charging station through the door. Now that he had to downgrade to a basic room, the cyborg worried that people would steal his workshop if he left it outside his room.With a heavy sigh, the cyborg looked at his packed workshop. It was sad having to say goodbye to this spacious room. He still had a lot of work to do even if the orders were on pause, thanks to his whistle-blowing stunt earlier. Not all their clients were
As soon as Damian left, Zen started preparing breakfast. There was no point returning to bed if he had to wake up in two more hours to make breakfast. It didn’t hurt to start earlier. The members of Godly Food had similar ideas as they excused themselves. Akiko and Sasha headed back and prepared the room for a guild debrief while Oritha informed Zen to send her a message as soon as breakfast was ready. The Amazonian couldn’t miss her daily workout.Within moments, only two people remained in the kitchen. The blind man didn’t mind spending his early morning in silence with Zen. He remained silent as the shorter teen worked. The dutiful chef didn’t forget his hospitality and served a cup of Liu Feng’s favourite tea after the water boiled.“Sorry,” the blind teen apologised when Zen served his oolong tea.Why was he apologising?Before Zen could refuse the apology, something more shocking happened. Liu Feng stood up and lowe
Soon after they cleared the air, Liu Feng received a private message from Damian informing them he had moved all the equipment into the hallway outside the spare room and was waiting for access. Thankfully, the guild meeting was in progress, so nobody saw the cyborg on their way to the meeting room. According to Damian, Liu Feng’s special order had also arrived.“The microwave and fridge have arrived,” he told Zen. “I’m going to help register Damian’s access to the new room while he helps us install the new appliances. We’ll host the celebratory feast in our room after the guild meeting.”Nodding, Zen bade Liu Feng goodbye as the busy man left to help their newest party member settle in his new room. The cyborg hardly left his room, so nothing should happen. Even if someone spotted him in their dormitory, it would be alright. His sworn brother would be there to handle it.As Zen busied away cooking breakfast for the guil
There was a reason why Damian Gorski never attended parties, apart from how he never received any invitations. His family threw celebrations regularly, but the cyborg would often opt not to participate. Firstly, he couldn’t eat anything. Secondly, he wasn’t a social butterfly. The attention exhausted him, and while he loved them dearly, being in their presence was simply too much. Damian preferred the solace of his cold laboratory, tinkering with the latest invention instead. His family understood his eccentric personality and did not force it. However, the same could not be said about Zen and his party. With the Seer personally escorting Damian to the main room, he could not refuse.“He’s here!” Liu Feng announced as he entered the room. All eyes turned to their newest party member eagerly as the tantalising smell of food invaded the Seer’s nostrils. Was that fried dough sticks and black coffee?To maintain privacy from the prying eyes
After breakfast, everyone scattered to do what they needed to do. Liu Feng decided to hit the training dojo with Akiko, both deciding they needed extra training. Zen prayed that the dojo would remain intact after the two decided to hash out whatever tension they had with each other.Oritha and Sasha wanted to catch up on the much-needed beauty sleep while Damian was working on fulfilling his outstanding client orders. That meant Zen was free to do what he wanted for the rest of the day without interruptions from others. It was a rather rare opportunity, so the gamer wasted no time.Lying comfortably in bed, Zen returned to the virtual world and remembered how he logged out on the newest stage. The chaos of a battlefield greeted his ears, with injured soldiers lying everywhere.Mandy reappeared as soon as Zen logged back into the game. As more than an hour passed, the previous poison resistance buff was no longer applicable. Instead, Zen received a new rand
The fortress was huge. Zen wasn’t expecting the new stage to have such a huge spawning area compared to the second stage. It was massive enough to get lost in the fortress. The spawn village on the first floor had many NPCs compared to the second floor’s spawn. However, neither could be compared to the number of NPCs in this fortress. Zen saw how every soldier here had a name and unique appearance. It was as if they had been modelled after real people and not simply created using the character creation RNG generator. There had to be at least a hundred people in the courtyard alone. Zen didn’t know if there would be more or less people inside the castle or marketplace. However, at least a hundred more sentries were on these walls, watch towers and guarding the drawbridge gates.“Hey, do you know where the garrison commander is?” Zen asked a sentry guard on duty.The soldier was wearing chain armour and blinked at Zen. He stared at the adventure
Collecting the rewards for successfully defeating John’s cousin, the party members of Godly Food jumped into the portal leading to the next floor. Zen knew that the dungeon had different themes on every ten floors. The tenth floor of each themed stage would be different from the other stages in difficulty. It was why the vanguard team struggled with the twentieth floor’s boss. In addition to the stage mechanic’s difference, the final boss was also tougher to deal with. If not for the monstrous capabilities of the combatants, Zen doubted they could breeze through the first ten floors as quickly as they did.Anticipating a village or town vibe similar to the other floors from before, Zen was stunned to find himself in a rocky cave full of darkness. It had ominous vibes, and only Liu Feng moved confidently in the darkness. Everyone else minimised exploring further without a light source.“We’ll log out here,” Akiko informed Damian. “Y
After entering the boss dungeon den, Zen shivered. It wasn’t similar to a wolf’s den. If anything, it appeared closer to an actual dungeon, as if someone had deliberately attempted to imprison the boss here. The stale smell of dogs and many broken chains of different sizes on the ground spoke volumes about John’s cousin.Unlike the short werewolf, who remained in his werewolf form constantly, the boss was a monster who could transform. Depending on the moon cycle, it could be a violent and bloodthirsty monster or a broken man who lived in constant fear and misery of his curse.“He changes according to the moon cycle once the rampage begins,” Akiko explained. “I took a while to figure out how to kill him, even on the first run. He’s immune to damage on a blood moon. We need to finish it as soon as possible.”With a full party participating in a boss battle, Zen had faith they could conclude it before even the blood moon p
Finally approaching the final boss’s cave, Zen wondered if the storyline would change because they had let Han murder John brutally. His body had been hacked into pieces and scattered around the rotting forest. The maggots would get to it soon and reduce it to bones. Yet, the cruel butchering session remained fresh in Zen’s mind.Everyone in the party knew that feeling all too well. Having lived in the underworld, they sympathised with Zen, who had lived like a civilian his whole life. Although not everyone participated directly in the act of murder, they knew what it meant to take a life. Even Damian had seen it happen. He knew how to interrogate for information and was quite adept at the craft when required.“Don’t think too much about it,” Liu Feng was the first to break the silence. “He wasn’t even real. This is a game designed by the Godfather to find the next successor. It’s just another test.”Even if it wer
Even after many years of not being on talking terms with the rest of the family, Hans fitted right in when delving blows at the cowardly werewolf. Mai ripped out chunks of flesh with her teeth, snarling at it the whole time while Laura expertly force-fed the werewolf with different herbs with particularly nasty effects.Even with regeneration abilities, John could not recover from herbs that tasted nasty, gave him muscle cramps or made him itch all over. Laura truly knew how to make someone suffer, and Zen watched with morbid fascination at their different uses. Her apothecary skills were no less effective than those of Herbologist Hernie.“Can you heal him again?” Damian asked. “Han needs another round. Mai roughed him up a little too good.”With a priest in the party who did not worship any known religion, the torture session became smoother and more effective. No apology from John would appease the family’s anger. Although Zen did not
After listening to the story about John, Laura’s expression hardened. “That son of a bitch!” she spat. “How dare he prey on my granddaughter! Where is he now?!” Slightly terrified by the murderous aura, Zen reported that Sasha and Damian had the werewolf at Gabrielle’s hut. Mai had been ripping him a new one each time he regenerated. The girls had been doing a great job of making him miserable. Han was already there. “I can’t believe I’m last at the party. That wolf deserves to die. Even death is too cheap a price to pay after what he did to my husband and son.” For once, Zen agreed. Even if John was merely a character in the game, he deserved death. The fact that the game administrators did not grant John invulnerable stats meant that it was possible to kill the cousin of the floor boss. While waiting for Laura to pack her ‘tools’ and herbal surprises, Zen approached Liu Feng and thanked him for accompanying them. In real time, it was already past regular l
Studying advanced herbalism from Laura took more time than Zen expected. Thankfully, the game had a way of providing cheats for him. Instead of cramming all the knowledge into his head that would give him a splitting migraine, it provided a useful guidebook that would prompt him on what a particular herb does upon location and what combinations he could use it for with other known herbs. The problem was, to truly master this skill, he had to pass the final test. Laura’s pop quiz only had ten questions. However, there was a timer. While Zen could attempt it infinitely, there were thousands of herb combinations to remember. Not having any formal education in either of his past lives, the young chef faltered. “You may use anything in this cottage as a reference for your test,” Laura smirked. “All the best. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” Stressing over the best method to find what he needed, Zen tested a few things. Firstly, when Laura said that the new skill would inst
While the other party members gathered the family members for a reunion, Zen and Liu Feng finally found Laura’s cottage after taking a wrong turn. Funnily enough, it was the Seer who pointed out how they had been going in a circle before Zen realised he had misinterpreted the map. Knocking on the cottage door, Zen waited with his sworn brother. From inside, he could hear someone coughing badly. “Who is it?” the cranky old lady hacked as she cracked open the door. Instead of seeing her sloppy son or nosy granddaughter, Laura saw a cute priest and a handsome, long-haired warrior. The new adventurers surprised her. Were they lost in the forest? “What do you want?” she asked briefly before launching into a new coughing fit. It was a particularly nasty cold that had persisted for a week now without any signs of recovery. Despite all the herbal medicine she made, Laura did not see any signs of improvement. Perhaps she was getting on in age. Smiling, Zen show
It was a shame Zen was not with them. Sasha would have gone for a few more rounds, using the cowardly werewolf as a punching bag after Zen healed him. The more they dug information out from the pervert, the worse Sasha’s temper was. Damian did not stop her. The draconian needed somewhere to vent her anger, and it was best for it not to come his way. In truth, the cyborg felt a little sorry for Gabrielle, even if she were just a fictional character created for this virtual dungeon game. The cowardly cousin of the floor boss was no different from lowly thugs borrowing the influence of their powerful relatives to cause mayhem. Whimpering in fear and pain with his tail tucked in between his legs, the werewolf defect who could not transform into a human no matter the moon cycle kept a close eye on Sasha. Under the watch of the merciless draconian female, there was nowhere for him to run. He told them what they wanted to know and was alive for now. Given how tightly they w
Using hand gestures, Sasha signalled the countdown and Damian prepared his stunning spells silently. They only had one chance to catch the secret admirer off guard. Whatever he was doing was disgusting enough. Han wasn’t lying about the obsession. The stalker werewolf was plucking flower petals and chanting Gabrielle’s name to see if she would love him back. Each time the flower petals ended on a no, he would crush the flower, stomp on it and pick a new one, confessing his disturbing love to her before plucking off the petals of a new flower.“Oh, Gabrielle! What sweet rosy cheeks you have, all the better for me to bite into them when they are ripe! They were pink when you were a babe. They were red when you had a fever. I wonder if they’d bleed if I bit them… would you cry in pain and fear? It makes me so excited to think about it! Just wait a little more, my angel. You’d soon be an adult, and we could finally be together!”Disgu